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March 14, 2019

Recipe: Rolling River Spirits’ Viking Coffee

By Erin James

When you raise a glass for St. Patrick’s Day, your first instinct might not be to reach for a steaming cup of coffee laced with a traditional Scandinavian spirit. But maybe it should be with this recipe for Viking Coffee from Rolling River Spirits.

A take on a St. Patty’s starter drink, the Irish Coffee, this rendition goes a bit more with the luck of the Swedes.

“An aquavit spirit and coffee are long-established components of a Nordic cocktail, and we have created this lively and flavorful drink in order to introduce folks to the versatility of this spirit,” says Rick Rickard, distiller and co-owner at the Portland distillery.

Traditionally made with caraway, herbs and spices, Rolling Rivers’ Brown Bear aquavit is also aged in used rye whiskey barrels. Although this recipe features freshly brewed coffee, the team includes its vodka-based coffee spirit, too, imbued with beans from Coava Roasters. (Pro tip: go next-level in pairing and brew your favorite bag of Coava beans to match the profile.)

The aquavit “easily brings out an impressive profile by itself, [but] we then take it a step further by adding our own 80-proof coffee spirit, thus creating ‘Viking Coffee’,” Rickard adds.

Make this cocktail yourself with the simple recipe below or taste it on Saturday, March 16, at the Distillery Row producer’s tasting room for the spirit hub’s monthly Cocktail Crawl, featuring Irish Coffee spins for March.

As always, the Cocktail Crawl gives back to a local nonprofit, going this month to My Voice Music, an organization that “engages Portland-area youth in music and performance in order to promote self-esteem, social skills, and emotional expression.”